Because the evil accountant won the double or nothing.

Potluck Cream Puff

Bring to boil in Med. saucepan:
1 Stick Margarine or Buttah. You know I prefer Buttah.
1 Cup Water

Add:
1 Cup Flour
Stir til dough comes from sides of pan and well blended.

Beat in 4 eggs, one at a time.
Pour into greased 9x12 pan and Bake at 400 for 30 mins.

Cool, then add filling.

3 sm boxes FRENCH vanilla instant pudding
4 Cups Milk
1 8oz pkg Cream Cheese (room temp)

Beat together till well blended
Spread on Puff Crust.

Slap a tub of Cool Whip on top of THAT
Drizzle with chocolate syrup.

EEEEEEvil.

Tasty Tuesday--Mmmm...Tri Tip

My blog sistas, I am writing to you today about the most glorious supermarket innovation EVER. I just took it for granted that it was everywhere, like tortillas. My auntie from Tennessee had no idea what we were talking about.

Go ask your butcher for some Tri Tip. When the local market throws some on the grill, my heart goes pitter pat. I will pay their highway robbery prices to take one home already cooked and melt in your mouth tender. Or I will grill one myself. But I don't do it as well as the burly boy from the market.

Costco sells them here, but my auntie says not so in the south. Brisket is hard to find here so I guess it's a regional thing. Tri tip is a good compromise for us because I like it Pink and the Honey likes it overcooked. I am slowly bringing him around. But Don't let anybody put barbecue sauce on it. Ugh. Why ruin a perfectly good piece of meat with that goo? That's okay for ribs. Tri tip deserves better.

This message has been brought to you by the atkins diet and your friendly neighborhood cardiologist.

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I was trying to put in a Flickr photo, but alas, no luck.

Here's a little more info from our friends at Wiki.

Tasty Tuesday--Sugar Cookies

I was shopping this weekend and saw the most beautiful copper cookie cutters. They were crying out for Martha's Sugar cookies. Yes, THAT Martha. This is the most consistent, tasty recipe I have ever found for sugar cookies. I get lazy and make the dough into logs, rolled in colored sugar, I cut them into coins and bake quadruple batches. They are that good.

Martha's Sugar Cookies

4 C sifted All Purpose Flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking Powder
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 C Sugar
2 lg eggs
2 t vanilla OR 2 t fresh lemon juice + zest of 2 lemons

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder, set aside.
2. Use an electric mixer to cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs.
3. Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until thoroughly combined. Stir in vanilla or lemon mixture. Wrap dough in plastic and chill for about 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 325. On a floured surface roll dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets; refridgerate until firm, 15 minutes. Remove from fridge, decorate with sugar, if that blows your skirt up. Bake until edges just start to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks. May be stored at room temp in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Makes 16 large cookies, or 30 2 1/2 inch cookies.

Um, double the recipe because you will want more immediately.

Tasty Tuesday- Bread Pudding

Still no fantastic Rum cake. WTF did I do with the recipe?

More Badness...

Don’t Think About It Bread Pudding

Topping
2 Tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon Cinnamon


Pudding
4 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
¾ cup sugar
2 ½ cups whole milk
2 ½ cups heavy cream
3 Tablespoons bourbon
1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
12 ounces (about ½ loaf) good quality american style white bread, sliced 3/8 inch thick and cut into 1 ½ inch cubes (about 8 cups)*okay, I used mini-croissants, hence the name
1 ½ Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for
greasing the baking dish

1. FOR THE TOPPING: stir them together, genius.

2. FOR THE PUDDING: adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325*I think mine was at 350-yikes! Butter a 13 x 9 baking dish.

3. Wisk the eggs, yolk, and sugar in a large bowl to blend well. Whisk in the milk, cream, bourbon, vanilla, nutmeg and salt. Stir in 6 cups of bread; mix thoroughly to moisten. Let stand 20 minutes.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Scatter the remaining 2 cups bread cubes on top, pushing them down gently to partially submerge. Brush the exposed bread with the melted butter and sprinkle with the topping.

5. Bake until the pudding turns a deep golden brown, is beginning to rise up the sides of the baking dish, and jiggles very slightly at the center when shaken, 45 to 50 minutes. A knife inserted in center should be partially coated with semi-set custard, not clean!

Tasty Tuesday--Dutch Baby

I can't find the Rum Cake recipe, so here is the dutch baby that is the best, most impressive, so easy it should be illegal thing to serve when you have company for breakfast. Forget standing over a griddle, missing out on all the conversation!

This is from an Old Sunset Magazine cookbook--Favorite Recipes II. The important thing is to use a shallow container (no more than 3 inches tall) to get yummy crispiness all around...

For 2-3 qt pan:
1/4 C butter
3 eggs
3/4 C Each milk and flour

Place butter in pan and set pan in a 425 oven until butter is melted and foamy. Meanwhile, Throw it all in the blender! Eggs first, once blended add milk with motor running, then slowly add flour. Keep the blender going for at least 30 seconds after the last of the flour.
Remove pan from oven (butter should be foamy).
Pour batter in pan and return to oven, bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffy and well browned.

Two favorite ways to eat this?
1. powdered sugar and squeeze lemons on it...

2. I just throw frozen peaches into the blender with a little sugar and cinnamon and pour it over...YUM!

Because I love that they list proportions for other sized pans in this cookbook--I NEVER have the pan that they call for...It says don't use glass, but I've done it, it's still tasty!

3-4 qt pan?
1/3 C Butter
4 Eggs
1 C each flour/milk

4-4 1/2 qt pan
1/2 C
5 eggs
1 1/4 C each

4 1/2-5 qt
1/2 C
6 eggs
1 1/2 C each

Seriously--so easy.

Tasty Tuesday

This is my gift to you, stolen DIRECTLY from the pages of
Cuisine Magazine. Which is, by the way, one of my all time favorite cooking magazines (along with Cook's Illustrated).

Chocolate Espresso Torte

Place in Bowl:
12 oz semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Heat until boiling; pour over Chocolate:
1 lb unsalted butter
1 C espresso (coffee concentrate is smoother)
1 C dark brown sugar

Add:
8 eggs, slightly beaten

1. Trace and cut out waxed paper or parchment to fit the bottom of a 9” springform pan.
2. Place chocolate in a bowl. In a saucepan, bring butter, espresso, and sugar to a boil. Keep stirring until sugar dissolves.
3. Pour butter mixture into bowl of chopped chocolate. Whisk until chocolate mixture is melted and smooth.
4. Keep whisking as you very slowly pour eggs into chocolate mixture. Now, pour the batter into prepared springform pan.
5. Place springform pan in a roasting pan. Add boiling water to roasting pan until water comes halfway up sides of pan.
6. Bake 1 hour at 350. Place on cooling rack. Run thin bladed knife around inside of pan to loosen torte. Cool, then chill overnight.





Chocolate Glaze

Microwave at 50%:
8 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped
12 T unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
5 t water
1 T light corn syrup
Pour over Torte

7. Remove sides from pan. Cut a piece of Cardboard to fit torte. Set on top, then invert torte. Place on pedestal.
8. Slide knife between bottom and paper to release. Press lightly on cake to smooth out any uneven spots.
9. Combine all glaze ingredients in a bowl. Microwave at 50% power for 3 minutes, stirring once a minute.
10. Whisk glaze until it becomes very smooth. This is very important when you start pouring it over cake.
11. Pour warm glaze over torte, letting is coat sides. Pour fast because that cold torte makes the glaze set up.
12. Use a knife for lightly touching up only the uncoated areas. Don’t touch anything else or you’ll get marks!


Dieting is no fun. This recipe is deceptively easy to do--the water bath is the biggest problem I have. It looks amazing and tastes like sin. Did I mention that dieting sucks?

Tasty Tuesday...

This is my new guilty pleasure. I would happily give up sodas for this. Okay, technically, it's jsut as bad as soda, but I like it better than the dark fizzy goodness of your typical cola. Very refreshing... Due to my technical ineptitude, I have been unable to get a photo of it FROM the web, and had to resort to taking my own picture. sigh. I'll give you a better foodie-type thing next Tuesday, but you needed to know that this was out there. But find it on sale.